Fairy Mage
by Penhaligon
Summary: AU. Defeated and bound by his greatest enemy, Harry Potter was thrown from world to world until finally coming to rest in the Kingdom of Fiore. Luckily for him, the first people he meets all belong to a certain magical Guild. Harry/Erza


Many things in the world of Fiore are more than they seem: most of all the tiny wooden flute known simply as Lullaby.

It started off as a wand; a simple magical contraption of holly and phoenix feather that served its first master faithfully and without fail. Seven years after it began use, after a terrible battle, a fallen demon was sealed inside the wand, and the wand itself was thrown into a portal to another world, known only to the primitive inhabitants of that world as The Veil.

Many years passed, and the wand was passed from world to world, granting victory to whosoever wielded it with a clean heart. Many men attempted to use its power, but the wand only ever guaranteed victory to those select few who were truly pure of heart.

During this time, the wand gained much notoriety and was known by many names, such as Gladstone's staff, Loki's sceptre, the Deathstick and the rod of Mithrandir. Each wielder left a piece of themselves on the wand, as an imprint or a ghost, preserving a perfect account of the journey of the wand through the ages. In return the wand changed itself to best suit the needs of its current master, becoming a staff or a sword or a sceptre as desired.

Almost half a millennium after its journey began, the wand reached its final resting place: the kingdom of Fiore.

When it first entered Fiore, it was discovered by the dark mage Zeref who, through his mastery of the blackest magicks, placed upon it many terrible curses, including layer upon layer of living transfiguration spells. Unlike so many wizards and mages before him, Zeref feared the wand greatly, and refused to use it instead choosing to carve it into a flute and place runes on it so that the demon within would remain asleep through the years. After Zeref's death, the flute had been lost for centuries, until it was discovered by Erigor of the Dark Guild Eisenwald towards the end of the X8th Century.

What happened next would be remembered as one of the most important events in the long history of Fairy Tail….

_A History of Fiore's Guilds in the X8th Century: Fairy Tail by Faye Nyqvist_

* * *

The pain was terrible.

In an instant, the bleak prison that had held Harry for so many eternities was shattered. Before he could even properly wake himself from his enchanted stupor, thick iron chains began to form around him, shackling him once more. Harry felt himself get pulled outwards as a monstrous transfiguration began. His very essence stretched to grotesque proportions as a lumbering wooden colossus emerged from the ancient flute. A bright purple seal erupted below the wooden monster, as black smoke billowed from the roaring golem.

Harry could do nothing but scream as his insides twisted, his muscles burned and his bones cracked under the strain of the transformation. He felt its gargantuan face split into a horrific grin, as Zeref's monster took control and reared its head. He had no control over the actions of the demon; it was his jailer and he merely served as its power source.

Harry could feel the drain on his bound magic as the monster summoned a stream of magical fire from above. The fire balls crashed into the ground, scattering a small group of people who stood near the monsters foot. The fire annihilated the ground around it, leaving nothing but a charred crater beneath.

_"Incendio, huh?"_ Thought Harry from deep within the monster. _"Mine's stronger."_

Harry watched in awe as the balls of fire were sucked up by a tiny pink-haired person beneath him. He flinched as the beast staggered backwards as it was hit in the face with a massive wave of fire. Spears of ice followed quickly, colliding with its chest. The monster raised an arm to swat away the ice shards, but quickly found its hand bathed in the unnatural flames that hastily burned its fingers to the bone.

Harry nearly crowed in delight. _"A fire-eater! And one who spits Fiendfyre at that! I'm impressed."_

The monster raised a clawed hand once more, before swiping it through the air viciously; the palm of its hand clipped one of the wizards attacking him, sending him flying backwards. Before the monster could make another move, a silver flash shot past its ear, quickly followed by a lancing pain in the side of its head.

Harry roared in pain at the stinging wound. The monster held out its hand as a crackling purple energy began to form at the tip of an outstretched finger. With a thundering roar, the _thing_ blindly fired off a beam of intense purple magic, gouging deep lines into the ground as it passed.

Internally, Harry slumped. Frankly, this battle was a little embarrassing. The demon-monster-thingy was just wasting the power that it was leeching off of him; its shots were wide, its magic was ill-formed and it couldn't even protect itself from a few annoying little wizards!

_"It's not like I want it to win, but still…this is just shocking! A decent battle would have been nice."_

He winced once more as the wizards scored yet another glancing blow along its side. With a burst of hitherto unseen speed, the monster shot a gnarled hand out, plucking one of the warriors from the sky before raising it to its face. Harry strained to look through the eyes of the monster at one of the powerful mages that had troubled the demon that Zeref himself had created.

Harry's breath caught in his throat.

She was _gorgeous_.

Crimson… no… Scarlet hair elegantly framed her pale face, flecked with mud and dirt and dust. Her face was dirty, her hair was knotted and messy and her black-winged armour was burned and broken in places. In short, she looked like a true warrior; proud and strong. Chocolate brown eyes stared up at him without fear. She didn't struggle, even as the gaping maw of the monster opened, and a purple seal began to form between its jaws.

Harry began to feel a terrible draw on his magic, as an unearthly green glow began to emit from the demons mouth. He could _feel_ the killing intent from the monster pass through him, as his very life force began to leave him, adding power to the spell. The corrupting allure of the black magic began to flow through him, whispering in his ear, egging him on to do great and terrible things.

_'Avada Kedavra?'_ He thought, horrified. _'Impossible.'_

The tiny figures at his feet didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation. Instead of fleeing from the monsters spell, they stood gaping at its power. The scarlet haired beauty in the demons claws didn't seem all that amazed; in a flash of golden-white light her black-winged armour was gone, replaced by a silver plate-armour. Dozens of swords fell from above her head, all embedding themselves in the monsters hand simultaneously. With a bellowing roar, the monster flung the woman towards the ground, where she was caught by one of her friends.

Taking a wide stance, the wooden golem began pulling the magic out of Harry, sucking more and more magical energy into the spell that was forming in its jaws.

Furrowing his brow, Harry began to pull his magic back towards him, enveloping himself in the power that he hadn't felt in the centuries since his binding. The monster resisted, but Harry ignored the feeble tugging at the strings of his magic, as his power began to return to him. The flow of his magic to the demon slowed to a trickle before it gradually stopped entirely. The crackling ball of green energy that had formed in the jaws of the monster began to dissipate as the monster lost the ability to control its magic.

Through the strength of his will alone, Harry reined his magic in, forcing it back into his body. In response to the new influx of power, his body thrummed excitedly, as his magic began to flow through his veins once more. The strong black chains that bound him began to unravel as he flared his newly-returned magic.

Loosing a thundering howl that shook the heavens, Harry lashed out against the demon that served as his jailer and the outermost layer of his prison. Harry's eyes danced at the prospect of freedom, as he readied himself to cast the first spells he had used in almost eight-centuries.

_"Fiendfyre."_ He whispered, placing a hand on the outside of his prison. His magic sang as terrible pillars of dark flame burst from the ground in front of him. The unnatural fires ravaged the insides of the demon, as fiery phoenixes crashed into the walls of the prison, only to reform as blazing wyverns made of shadow and flame took their place to burst through the ceiling of Harry's jail.

From the outside the monster appeared to stagger back, screaming incoherently. Blood red cracks began to form along its body. Gouts of flame began to burst through the cracks, before solidifying into fearsome burning figures of snakes and dragons and gryffins. A piercing scream echoed through the air as the demon began to disintegrate, the air around it beginning to hiss and roil at the heat coming off of the burning monster.

Harry stepped through the flames… and straight onto thin air.

He fell thirty feet before he managed to put his hands out and shriek, "Arresto Momentum." He stood up straight, still standing on nothing but air, before he surveyed the damage that he had done. Fires blazed in numerous places across the forest, and he could just about see the remnants of a rather opulent building that had evidently been trampled on by the monster. Harry grimaced when he saw a small crowd of older men and women hurrying towards him from the ruins of the building. He didn't really feel like dealing with collateral damage right now, so instead he turned to look at the three figures that 'he' had been fighting.

He grinned. "Time to meet the locals."

With a sharp crack, he disappeared on the spot, appearing in front of the three mages that he had been fighting. Immediately, they sprang to their feet, ready for another battle.

"Erm…. Hi!" He said brightly, keeping his palms raised to show that he wasn't an enemy. "Nice to meet you!"

The three looked at him in confusion, before the short, pink-haired pointed at him and started jabbering in an oriental sounding language.

"Oh balls." Harry said resignedly, "Translation charms are such a pain."

Harry placed his hand on his neck, before letting the magic flow and fuse with his vocal chords. He winced a little at the unfamiliar feeling, before flexing his neck and turning to speak with them. Translation charms generally took about half an hour of immersion in the language before they made the user completely fluent. Until then Harry would just have to make do.

"Sorry… my speaking is very ill. It is my one timing to speak as this." Harry nearly groaned when he heard how his words were coming out.

Pinky didn't seem to understand Harry, and so he kept jabbering on until his naked friend interrupted him with a sharp punch in the face. In a flash they were on each other, rolling away in a tumble of flailing limbs, as each mage tried to get the better of the other. From the way that they traded blows and unintelligible insults, Harry deduced that this kind of thing was a regular occurrence."

"It's okay. On behalf of Fairy Tail, I'd like to thank you for your assistance with the demon Lullaby. We appreciate your help."

It was the lovely scarlet-haired mage that he had caught sight of previously. In a heartbeat, Harry plastered on what he hoped was a roguish grin (though it looked a lot like a lecherous leer), before giving a deep comical bow.

"It was my welcome, your lady. I am of naming Harry Potter. And you are?"

She grinned toothily at him, in a predatory manner, before curtseying as deeply as her rather cumbersome armour would allow. "My name is Erza Scarlet, of Fairy Tail. It's nice to meet you."

"Believe me you, the pleasure's all mine."

Before he could say anything more, he heard voices shouting at them from within the forest.

"Oi! Erza! Weirdo-san! I found something!"

Pinky was back with his half-naked friend, but this time he was clutching something tightly in one fist. Eleven inches of holly and phoenix feather that Harry thought he would never see again.

"It's Lullaby's flute. I saw where it dropped so I went to pick it up after I dealt with Frosty here."

"Are you sure Matchstick, I mean it doesn't even look the same as it did." The half-naked man questioned.

"Shut it, you bastard! I know what I saw."

Erza cut in before any argument could spill over again. "In any case, we should take it to Master, he'll know what to-"

"Is my stick." Harry said abruptly.

Erza turned to him, an almost shocked look on her face, like she had forgotten that he was even there. "Harry-san, we have to take this to Master Makarov. If he feels that it is not a threat, then we will be happy to return your… err… stick to you."

Before Harry could answer, the wand began to hum with power. Breaking loose of Natsu's grasp, it flung itself across the field towards Harry, who caught it safely in the palm of his hand. For the first time in so very, very long Harry felt complete again. Like an extension of his body had finally been returned to him.

It felt right.

Powerful winds began to whip around Harry, as a dark green aura started to form around his outline. Small rocks and bits of mud and dirt were flung away from him as the hurricane-winds built in strength. A frightening grin crept onto Harry's face as he stood in the eye of the storm holding his newly re-acquired wand high above his head. The ground beneath Harry's feet began to buckle and crack as a crushing pressure filled the air.

"That's enough you bastard!" Swore Pinky as he rocketed towards Harry, fists ablaze.

Acting purely on instinct, Harry promptly disapparated from in front of the furious boy. He appeared about twenty feet behind Pinky's naked friend, wand raised and ready to fight. Even as he landed, Harry began chanting the incantation for a spell.

"You're not stealing the flute, you… you dark weirdo!" Pinky took a deep breath before belching a ball of fire at Harry, forcing Harry to stop his chant and pull up a strong shield to protect himself.

"Stop Natsu-" Erza tried to shout, but Pinky -whose name was Natsu apparently- had already thrown himself against Harry once more.

Waving his wand in a sweeping grand gesture, Harry transfigured half a dozen earthen golems, slow graceless creatures of crumbling rock, before banishing them towards Natsu. The lumbering beasts towered above the short pink-haired mage, but that didn't stop him as he tore through their stone bodies with powerful gouts of flame.

Undaunted, Harry sent a trio of powerful banishing charms at Natsu, sending him flying backwards, before conjuring up heavy iron chains that shackled him to the ground. With a terrible roar, Natsu flared his power, melting the iron of the chains off of him, before he dove towards Harry once more. Once more being forced to hide behind a powerful shield, Harry took the time to regard the opponent that was attempting to smash the barrier with his fists.

_'He's strong, but most of the power that he produces is wasted.'_ Thin cracks began to appear in the shield as Natsu hammered against it with all his might. _'He's fire and rage and base animal instinct, but his heart is in the right place. His weakness is his mind, his emotions cloud his judgement.'_

Hurriedly dropping the crumbling shield, Harry quickly conjured a pair of snakes before banishing them at Natsu with a hissed order to attack. Not wasting any time, he began chanting in Latin, pointing his wand squarely at Natsu.

Natsu roared his challenge to the heavens, shrugging off the conjured snakes as if they were nothing, as waves of fire spewed from his mouth. The pink haired fire mage took a deep breath, sucking in as much air as he could to fuel the fire in his lungs. Readying himself for his next attack, he opened his mouth to speak… only to get violently cut off by a metal covered fist.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Erza roared, her fist still outstretched, "No more fighting!"

"Erza, what the hell?" Natsu moaned from his new position on the ground. "That guy was gonna steal the flute!"

She didn't say anything; instead she merely turned to look at him, eyes blazing in a show of terrifying demonic fury. A raging red aura surrounded her as a look that promised pain and retribution to the next person to annoy her, spread across her face. Her voice came out like tightly controlled fury, not shouting, but chilling nonetheless.

"The fight was a misunderstanding, wasn't it Natsu?" She dared him to say differently.

"A-Aye!" He squeaked.

Behind the grovelling fire wizard, Harry was snickering quietly; unwilling to bring her fury down on himself, but unable to stop himself from laughing. Erza turned to look at him, her face softening a tad as she saw that he had taken no offense from Natsu's actions.

"I apologise, Harry-san, for Natsu, but I'm afraid that we cannot let you keep your stick until we have determined that it is not a threat." She could see that he really didn't want to surrender his stick, so she tried another approach. "It won't be for very long, I give you my word."

Harry grimaced, he didn't want to give up his wand so soon after he had gotten it back, but he could see that Erza was sincere with her offer. Finally relenting, he handed his wand over to the armoured mage, with the thought that he could always summon it back if he really needed it. As he handed his wand over he could see that Erza's shoulders relaxed by the smallest amount, just enough to be noticeable, and he slapped a small goofy smile on his face as the tension surrounding the situation began to dissipate.

"Thank you, Harry-san." She gave him a small smile of appreciation.

"It was nothing." He answered, thoroughly grateful that the translation charm hadn't buggered up the sentence. "He is quite strong." He said slowly, referring to Natsu.

"Ah. He is, but sometimes his heart gets in the way of his head, making him act without thinking."

Harry snorted loudly. _'That was a tactful way of calling him an idiot.'_

She smiled at him, before falling quiet. The silence stretched on but it wasn't awkward in any way, it was comfortable. As time passed, Harry started twiddling his thumbs nervously, as he thought about what to do with his life now.

"Err… Erza-san?" He questioned hesitantly, "What will become for me now?" He really hoped that she didn't say he would be detained, because Harry really didn't feel like fighting his way through powerful wizards so soon after he woke up, and he was _not_ going to prison.

"Master will want to speak to you and make sure that you're not dangerous. After that, I'm not sure, but chances are that he will invite you to join Fairy Tail. He always wants more strong mages to join."

"Fairy Tail? What's that?"

"It's our guild. Natsu and Gray and I all belong to Fairy Tail. We're the strongest guild in all of Fiore."

That just raised more questions. "A guild? I've never heard those 'fore." He winced internally. _'I thought the side effects of the translation charm were wearing off!'_

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "You've never heard of a guild before?"

He laughed nervously. "I'm from far away… very far away, and I've been asleep for a very long time. In fact the last time I was awake, they didn't have guilds in Fiore."

She gawked at him, surprise evident on her face.

He grinned uneasily, "Yeah, it's been a while."

She seemed to take a minute to recover her bearings, but she soon continued talking as if he hadn't said anything.

"Be sure to inform the Master of that fact, he'll be very interested." She ordered him bluntly. As soon as Harry nodded his assent, she started her explanation of what a guild is.

"Well, a guild is where mages go to find work and trade information, but in many cases they are much more than that. To us, a guild is like a family. We eat together, work together, fight together, and even cry together. Every member does their bit to support the others, because we all know that at the end of all things we can always count on our guild mates to be there for us. As Master often says, a guild is a place for friends to gather and grow strong, but most of all, it is a home for those who have none."

Harry stared at her, unblinkingly, as she spoke about her guild, Fairy Tail. He could see her pride in her guild, etched on her face as she spoke passionately about the importance of her guild mates, her _nakama_ as she called them, in her life. A small smile wormed its way onto Harry's face as he listened to her.

"That sounds brilliant." Harry whispered once she was finished. "To live like that would be perfect."

Harry had never had much of a family when he was growing up. Instead, his friends were his surrogate family, in particular the Weasley family and Hermione. In all his years of imprisonment -despite the fact that he was only conscious for short periods of time- that idea of friendship hadn't changed. To him, the bonds of true friendship were more important than anything else; they superseded familial ties and were more important than any law of any land.

Naturally, finding out that an entire guild of people lived by the same philosophy was delightfully refreshing. It sounded like heaven to Harry, who idly wondered whether a new life here would be the reward for a thoroughly harsh and unforgiving life so far.

"Then why don't you join us?"

The simple question broke Harry from his stupor, before eliciting a contented grin from the wizard.

"Join Fairy Tail?"

Erza nodded vigorously at his question.

He looked away from her to hide the small wet patches that were threatening to form under his eyes.

"I think I just might do that."

* * *

AN: This is just one of the ideas that was dancing about in my head, so let me know if you want me to continue it. Also, if I do continue it, what are your opinions on the names of the attacks; should they be in English eg. Fire dragon's roar, or in Anglicised Japanese eg. _Karyū no Hōkō?_

__R&R.

Thanks,

Penhaligon


End file.
